[WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: [Africa-CS-WSIS](no subject)

[Nnenna]

Dear All,
The Guardian newspapers in Lagos, on Monday 11th July, published an 
article I wrote anchored on our Abuja meeting and Africa’s preparations for 
WSIS 2. You can access the Guardian on www.ngrguardiannews.com . 
Unfortunately, you may be unable to retrieve opinion pieces in past issues 
unless you are a subscriber. So I reproduce below, word for word, what was 
published. The op-ed editor would welcome letters or other forms of reaction 
to the issues raised.
Adefemi



Africa’s Civil Society And WSIS 2

By Femi Sonaike

Earlier this month, stakeholders in Africa’s civil society met in Abuja 
for three days to discuss inequities in the global information system and 
the proper role of civil society at both international and national levels. 
This meeting was one of several regional forums to prepare the ground for 
Africa’s effective participation in the second World Summit on the 
Information Society, WSIS 2, holding in Tunis in November. The first summit, 
WSIS 1, held in Geneva in December 2003.
The WSIS is an initiative of the International Telecommunications 
Union, an organ of the United Nations. Arising out of the Millennium 
Development Goals initiative, WSIS seeks to reconcile the often conflicting 
positions of different regions on the direction of growth, and the 
consequences, of the global information society.
Africa, perhaps more than any other region, faces the greatest 
challenge in making her voice heard, being arguably at the worst end of the 
information and communication divide. As one participant in WSIS 1 noted, 
“Africa was quite strident in telling the summit what she disliked about the 
global information system but was far less coordinated in expressing what 
she wanted.” Apparently to present a more coordinated front in Tunis, 
African information stakeholders have held several “preparatory meetings” 
since WSIS 1. These included a meeting at Accra, last February.
The Abuja meeting, sponsored by the Nigerian Communication Commission 
(NCC), had a dual agenda: to prepare Africa’s civil society for WSIS 2, as 
well as for next year’s World Telecommunications Development Conference. The 
meeting was essentially for the organizations that constitute civil society. 
This includes NGOs, women and youth groups, academics, and media experts.
The notion of civil society as active participants in the Information 
Society came out of WSIS 1 which identified three groups as important to the 
employment of information and communication for development: governments 
(public sector), profit-driven organizations (private sector), and civil 
society - those on whose behalf, presumably, the public and private sectors 
operate. Together these three groups form what one participant called “a 
three-legged stool” described by the acronym PPCS – public, private, civil 
society tripartite.
While civil society organisations (CSOs) would normally play the role 
of “partners in progress,” it is recognized that occasions often arise when 
the actions of government and the private sector conflict with the goals of 
civil society or even threaten its existence. In such situations, CS should 
play an advocacy role on behalf of the “bus stop man”.
An example of such an occasion is the never-ending crisis on fuel 
pricing in Nigeria. It is clear that the consequences of increases in fuel 
prices permeate every sector of the country, and so far, only in a negative 
way. Civil society, if it were well organized in Nigeria, would take up the 
challenge of coordinating and properly presenting to government and the 
private sector the position of the ordinary citizen who is at the down-side 
of incessant increase in fuel prices. If this failed, CSOs would then have a 
duty to mobilize the people for more demonstrative action.
Perhaps the best example of the power of civil society was the massive 
demonstration that “welcomed” G8 leaders, heads of the world’s eight leading 
nations, to their recent meeting in Scotland. As an important aside, it is 
disheartening that in African countries, for whose welfare European civil 
societies were demonstrating, not a whimper was heard about the need for 
world leaders to develop and nurture a global conscience. This is clearly 
because civil societies in African countries are still rudimentary and 
largely uncoordinated.
Even where there is no clear conflict between PP and CS, civil society 
may find itself as the only organ capable of ensuring sanity in governance. 
For example, now that international lending institutions are granting 
Nigeria partial debt relief, how do we ensure that present and future 
governments do not push the country back into the debt trap? President 
Obasanjo assured the world that the $18 billion saved from debt forgiveness 
would be spent on the health sector, schools, and road rehabilitation, 
especially in the rural areas. Who is to hold him accountable for this lofty 
promise? Civil society has the responsibility to keep track of such promises 
from high places, to monitor public sector spending, and to ensure that 
those who rule do not engage in borrowings for frivolous projects or for 
endeavors of dubious benefit for the citizenry.
It is instructive that the media are included in Civil Society even 
though, most often, they function for profit. This is because of the 
recognition that media, profit-motivated or not, also perform an important 
public service, that of the watchdog of society. In its advocacy role, civil 
society’s strongest weapon- and ally- is often the mass media.
So, is Africa’s civil society ready for WSIS 2? Most participants at 
the civil society forum in Abuja would say definitely yes – at least far 
more ready than it was for WSIS 1. But more could still be done. Africa’s 
presence must be felt at the Tunis summit, if for no other reason than that 
it is holding on the African continent. And Nigeria should lead the African 
regional team.
In the final analysis, the challenge facing Africa’s civil society is 
to articulate the need for diversity of opinion and control of information 
at the international level, while promoting the formation of active and 
unified civil society organisations in each African country.


Femi Sonaike, a visiting professor of communication technology at Lagos 
State University, was a resource person to the African Civil Society forum 
held in Abuja,
July 1 -3


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